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911 Honeybee Horror
Location: Robstown, Texas Date: August 23, 1994 Story Chris Graves arrived one day at his grandmother's farm to mow some tall grass. His mother said, "If anything goes wrong he is to call her or 911." While this was going on Nueces County Sheriff David Maldonado drove by and checked on Chris. On the second pass Chris was mowing and still nothing went wrong but on the third pass Chris passed the old shed and hit a beehive with his tractor. On the fourth pass he ran over it and got stung. Chris killed the tractor, ran to his truck, and called 911. Dorothy Pollan took the call. Chris shouted into the phone that he was under attack and being stung by killer bees. Dorothy could not understand what he was saying until he said killer bees and gave his grandmother's address. Dorothy dispatched Robstown Fire and Rescue and EMS along with the county animal control. David arrived on the scene four minutes later. David grabbed his bullhorn and shouted, "Stop, drop, and roll" but by this time Chris was covered in bees and there was no way to get to him. David got out of his car, walked up to Chris, and tried to extract him, but he had to give up because he is allergic to bees and had to return to his car. David grabbed his accident jacket but it did nothing and he had to give up again. Chris stayed on the line until he passed out and the phone went dead. Dorothy said, "It automatically went silent and we had no idea what was going on." She also wondered if she was going to be the last person Chris heard as he died. Minutes later Robstown Fire and EMS arrived and started to extract Chris, but they could do nothing and got stung and the chief had to use the squad to get them away from the bees. Animal Control Officer and beekeeper Nori Parez arrived and suited up. It was up to him to get Chris out. Nori said, "The bees will defend their colony and the first thing to do is to get away from them." David got out of his car for the last time and was automatically attacked. Nori pulled his truck up against David, honked his horn, told him to get in, and he sped off down the road with David and the firefighters in the back. David said the wind got rid of the bees but he was wheezing and needed the venom kit from his car since he got stung fifty times. David was transferred to the ambulance and they gave him the antivenom. Backup from Animal Control arrived all suited up and began the process of bringing Chris out and exterminating the bees. He was loaded into the back of their truck and they drove as fast as they could to Riverside Hospital. At Riverside Hospital doctors began the process of removing the bees under the supervision of Dr. Dan Bywaters. He noted David was okay because EMS gave him the antivenom in time but when he got to Chris he was covered head to toe with bees. Before they could do anything they had to exterminate the bees which made it difficult to attach IVs or to give Chris the antivenom. Dr. Bywater feared Chris was going to lose his kidneys or go into a coma because of the stings. Chris' girlfriend, Andra, called him on her cell phone and he told her to call his mother and come to the hospital. His mother, Sharnel, arrived with Andra a few minutes later once she heard what happened. She told him to have faith that he would recover. Chris was transfered to Spohn Hospital in Corpus Christi where he was given lots of fluids and antivenom to fight the stings and treat kidney failure. Dr. Bywaters said Chris listened to his mother because he would not be here today telling this story if it was not for that call. An investigation by animal control and by local universities determined they were honeybees, not deadly killer bees and wasps. Nori Perez also noted that when Chris hit their hive with his tractor it woke them up and agitated them. Today, because of Chris' attack, Animal Control and the rescuers are better trained to deal with situations like this so no one gets stung like he did. Category:1994 Category:Texas Category:Insect Attacks Category:Anaphylactic Shock